A militant who fought alongside Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and is now the leader of a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda in South Yemen has struck a deal with the United States and Saudi Arabia to send 5,000 Al-Qaeda fighters into Syria according to reports out of the Middle East.

Tariq al-Fadhli, jihadist leader of the Southern Yemen insurgency and a man personally trained by Bin Laden, has successfully negotiated with U.S. and Saudi officials to send 5,000 jihadist fighters via Turkey to aid Syrian rebels in the attempted overthrow of President Bashar Al-Assad, reports AlAlam. The report was also picked up by AdenAlghad.net.

In a newspaper interview, al-Fadhli revealed that he had agreed to transfer 5,000 militants from the southern Yemen cities of Zanzibar and Jaar “to Syria in order to fight in war being waged by armed groups, including the Al Qaeda-linked groups against the Syrian regime.